<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; "></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">* <b>MESSENGER</b> - October 4, 2012</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b>MESSENGER Mission Receives the IAA Laurels for Team Achievement Award</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">"The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has awarded the 2012 Laurels for Team Achievement Award to the MESSENGER team. The award was presented September 30 at the opening ceremony of the 63rd International Astronautical Congress, which is being held this week in Naples.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">MESSENGER Project Scientist Ralph McNutt, MESSENGER Co-investigator Stamatios Krimigis, and MESSENGER Mission Design Lead Engineer James McAdams were on hand to accept the award before an audience of 300, including 14 heads of space agencies. In introductory remarks, Yannick d'Escatha, director of the French Space Agency, vice president of IAA and chair of the awards committee, called the MESSENGER mission a "fantastic and extraordinary accomplishment."</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">The citation for MESSENGER's award reads: "To the team of scientists and engineers whose creativity and expertise made possible the development and operation of the MESSENGER Mission, the first to orbit Mercury, as a breakthrough in scientific solar system exploration. During its unprecedented one-year primary mission, this robotic explorer has provided an extraordinary, comprehensive scientific overview of the planet, its makeup, its exosphere and its magnetosphere, providing the text for a new and overdue chapter of humankind's knowledge of the smallest of the terrestrial planets. This unique achievement of technology was conducted by the JHU APL and accomplished with the collaboration of NASA."</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">John Sommerer, the head of the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which built and operates the spacecraft, said: "APL is very pleased with this international recognition. To have accomplished such a complete characterization of this little-known planet, within the low-cost Discovery mission class, is a testament to the vision and skill of the science, engineering, and operations team responsible for MESSENGER."</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">The Laurels Team Achievement Award is one of the two major awards given by IAA every year, the other for individual recipients. The team award was established in 2001 to recognize extraordinary performance and achievement by a team of scientists, engineers, and managers in the field of astronautics. Past recipients of the award have gone to the teams of the Cassini-Huygens Program (2006), the Hubble Space Telescope (2004) and the U.S. Space Shuttle (2002).</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">"This is a special honor for MESSENGER, when one knows that previous winners include Hubble, Cassini, SOHO, and the U.S. Space Shuttle Team, among others," said Krimigis of APL. "We are in select company, indeed."</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #000000">The new app is available for download at <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/messenger-nasas-mission-to/id510144229?ls=1&mt=8"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/messenger-nasas-mission-to/id510144229?ls=1&mt=8</span>.</a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">For more information on the MESSENGER mission, visit the MESSENGER home page: <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(4, 51, 255); ">http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">* <b>Pack Your Backpack</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Calling all explorers! Tour JPL with our new Virtual Field Trip site. Stops include Mission Control and the Rover Lab. Your guided tour starts when you select a "face" that will be yours throughout the visit. Cool space images and souvenirs are all included in your visit.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; color: rgb(4, 51, 255); "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #000000">+ <a href="http://virtualfieldtrip.jpl.nasa.gov/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">http://virtualfieldtrip.jpl.nasa.gov/</span></a> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">* Past, Present, Future and Proposed JPL Missions - <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(4, 51, 255); ">http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">* For special JPL programs and presentations in your area visit the JPL Solar System Ambassador web site at <a href="http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/index.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(4, 51, 255); ">http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/index.html</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-size: 24px; font-family: Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b>Mars Missions</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b></b></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-size: 18px; font-family: Courier; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); "><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/welcome"><b><i>Be A Martian</i></b><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); "><b><i></i></b></span></a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b></b></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Courier; color: rgb(4, 51, 255); "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "></span></div></body></html>